NNtG: Shadow Zone: One SLIMY Summer

It's been a while, but it's finally time for another trip to the Shadow Zone. So far I'm three for three with books from that series that I liked. And seeing how it's (Woo!) Party Summer and all, it's only fitting that return also features a summer book. And we're getting slimy in this book. Will that bode good luck or are we in for a big mess? Let's find out as we encounter One SLIMY Summer.

Hey look, another cover I had to take a picture of myself on account of no good renders being online. That's looking to the norm and not the exception with a lot of Shadow Zone. This cover though still works fine in terms of selling it being a slimy situation as our two protagonists Max and Diana are trying to survive as some slimy sea creature is grabbing at their boat. I love that Diana is holding a wrench ready to smack the crap out of it. I love the stormy feel to everything. The colors are really great in giving it that horror at the beach vibe it's going for. Great stuff. Though why does it look like Max is wearing a 1942 era bathing suit?

Max Harrison, his sister Diana and six year old sister Emily are at the beach in Florida as Max is focused on filming everything with his new camera. We learn that Max, Diana and Emily's mom is the mayor and their dad is an engineer. It mostly just gets him derision from local bully Brady Simpson. As Max is filming everything, he comes across a broken surfboard that's covered in slime, only to find out it's his surfboard. When he asks Emily about what happened, she claims that a sea monster ate it. Of course we're only like six pages deep so Max is skeptical. Emily claims the monster came from Shady Point, the darker end of the beach and Brady jokes that maybe it was the ghost of the Silver Moon, a  ghost of a sea captain whose ship, the aforementioned Silver Moon, crashed on the beach centuries ago, possibly still haunts the beach. Okay, already on the table we have a chance at a better Ghost Beach...

But Max is still skeptical since there's no such thing as ghosts or sea monsters. What is this, a horror book for children? Get real! But it's not an isolated incident. Another girl, Katie Shaunessey, lost her boogie board and a dog belonging to the Davidson family has also vanished. Max is tired of all this talk and makes his leave as Brady's dog Rocky is following him. Though he's a skeptic, he does find that Shady Point is rather creepy. Like it's a zone of shadows or something. It's all full of sea grass and all the plants are over grown. But Max decides he'll check on his father, who is working on a new pier for Choctawee Bay. But suddenly he stops as slime bubbles above the water and a giant tentacle bursts out of the water. Max screams and closes his eyes, but when he opens them, no tentacle. 

As Brady tries to get his bearings of what happened, suddenly someone dressed as an old captain with evil eyes tells him to follow orders or Bayville will suffer the consequences. The other kids catch up to Max who is mostly confused but still skeptical about tentacles and ghosts. Rocky wanders off, which is fine by Brady because the dog knows his way around. Also Brady might be a terrible pet owner. Everyone else leaves while Max, Diana and Emily talk for a bit, while an old woman named Mrs. Lanteris goes for her daily jog which ends with a dip in the ocean. The three then hear Rocky barking in the distance. However, the dog's barking seems to abruptly stop, meaning that Max has to go back into Shady Point to check. I mean the onus is on Brady here, but hey, at least Max cares about the dog's life. 

Max finds Rocky covered in the green slime he saw from earlier, but when he touches it, it burns him like some sort of paralyzing jellyfish sting. As the three manage to get the slime off Rocky, they notice that there's no other injuries, just the green slime on him. The three kids then see the captain again. The ghost of the Silver Moon. He tells them to help Aura before it's too late. Despite the confusion, when Mrs. Linteris shows up, she doesn't see any sign of a ghost captain. Max is still skeptical but at this point they don't know what else to do. At home they talk with their parents. Emily mentions the sea monster, but Max tries to quiet her down. Mrs. Harrison returns from town hall and gets the news about the slime from the kids. Of course she doesn't think it's a sea monster thing, but given there's been a lot of dead dogs around the area lately that maybe building the pier caused some deadly chemicals to spill into the water. You'd think this would be a concern big enough to close the beach for a bit, but Summerslam is coming up... I mean Summerfest. There's my one per blog and unless you totally know the reference it might be my best vague one.

Anyway, Summerfest is a local carnival day on the Bayville beach, and given the three are kids to the mayor, it means they have to dress all proper and, you know, make Mayor Mom look good. As everyone leaves, they're stopped by Chief Alvarez who mentions that Mrs. Linteris vanished during her normal routine. They then see her staggering in a panic, muttering about a sea demon and tentacles. As they try to calm her down Max notices that she's covered in the slime. Max starts to think the town's turning into the Twilight Zone. Or, you know, a Shadow Zone. Emily continues to say it was the ghost's doing and that they need to deal with this, but nobody's listening to the six year old. Brady shows up and thanks Max for saving his dog, who is recovering. Wouldn't be in this mess if you took care of your own dog, but I digress.

Emily is annoyed nobody's taking her seriously, but Diana and Max say that there's really no reason to tell anyone about this without proof. Holy crap, logical protagonists. Shadow Zone did it again. Diana notes this is like something out of Unsolved Mysteries.  My Mother the Car? Max then thinks that if people find out about the sea monster it will drive up business, then remembers his camera. If he can get footage, that'll be proof. I mean it's 1994, no kid, not even the mayor's son is going to have editing skills that amazing. And they can also profit off this and send it to Unsolved Mysteries or America's Home Videos (Not funniest, just America's Home Videos). Any more references you have, book? X-Files? Outer Limits? Duckman? 

Diana and Max head out in the middle of the night, but get caught by Emily who says that she's been the only one who can communicate with the ghost and the sea monster so she's helpful. Max isn't fond of this, but they have no choice. They head to the beach and start to set up when they see Emily sitting by some strange jellyfish creatures with sunken eyes. Pieces of Max's board and Katie's boogie board are there too. As they try to understand what that's about, the sea monster rises. It's a larger version of the creatures by Emily. Large tentacles under a gigantic jelly-like head with sunken-in eyes. Max snatches Emily and the three run for it, only to run into the ghost again. The ghost is Ambrose Ellison Pritchard, captain of the Silver Moon and "Aura" is the sea monster who needs their help. Because this all involves the "Shadow Zone". 

When Captain Ambrose was shipwrecked, he ended up sucked into the Shadow Zone, where he met Aura and her children. The construction of the pier has caused a rift in the Shadow Zone and because of it, they're all stuck here. The drilling broke the way back, and Aura can't just swim back in, so they need to convince their parents to start drilling again. If not, Captain Ambrose will curse the town with a raging storm. I guess that explains Florida weather. Aura is in a panic, and time is running out, but the siblings have to leave for now to find out what to do. They hope to get Aura gone by the next evening and send Max's tape to Unsolved Mysteries. Because at the end of the day, he's still a little capitalist twerp. When they get home however, Captain Ambrose destroys the tape. Emily says that's because you shouldn't toy with the life of a sea monster, but Max continues to dismiss her even though she's been the most logical character of the book so far. Oh and he still wants to film Aura for his own personal gain because, again, capitalist twerp.

Max heads to the beach the next day to film, but there's no sign of Aura, only a small, dead tentacle. As he tries to contact Captain Ambrose, Chief Alvarez shows up and Max ends up looking crazy for talking to a ghost, while also trying to claim it's for the movie. When Chief Alvarez says there's no such thing as a ghost of the Silver Moon, Captain Ambrose straight up throws a snake at him, only for Max to save him in time. After that happens, the three head to Surfside, the local water park and try to tell their parents to start drilling. They can't. Not just because of the issues with the water, but also the drilling equipment is gunked up with weird slime and can't drill anyway for a while. And with storm clouds brewing, time's is running out. Emily tries to blurt things out again, but Max keeps trying to shut her down. 

Max then notices that green slime is in the waterslides and he and Diana go down to the pipe area, thinking they'll find Aura. They find Aura and her babies, but that's not all. Behind her is another jellyfish monster, green with spots and tentacles with claws. AKA the one on the cover of the book. The two monsters fight before rushing off into the water main. Max and Diana leave and tell Emily who is now even more concerned, as is Diana, feeling like saving Aura and her babies is their responsibility. Max still doesn't, but given the storm's brewing, he kind of has to at this point. Also he still wants to film the monsters because of freaking course. 

The kids learn the pipes lead to the beach and head back to the pier. They hop a boat, but get grabbed by the other sea monster, like in the cover. There's also other creatures popping out of the water, one with hair, one orange and fleshy, one green. Aura and her babies also show up and seems to be screeching something. The monsters head further away as Captain Ambrose shows up, again angry the kids didn't solve this. Well, not so much angry at Diana or Emily, just Max. The green and orange creature is named Octos, and the other creatures are his gang. He's sort of an outlaw jellyfish monster in the Shadow Zone. Normally Aura would have others help protect her, but she and her babies are defenseless outside of the Shadow Zone. And now it's looking to be too late. Captain Ambrose says that if they don't free the portal, he'll have to. The kids leave the water with Max still being an idiot and not really caring about this, when they remember they have to do a photo shoot with their mother at Surfside. But that's cancelled as their mother tells them a hurricane is coming. Hurricane Ambrose.

As they head home, Diana rips into Max because he is being a selfish brat about everything. Max goes to take a shower, but Aura's babies are in the tub, and later, so is Aura. How giant jellyfish monsters can fit in tiny pipes is just brushed away as "Shadow Zone rules" so we'll stick with that. Max isn't happy with this, but then he sees that Octos is outside and is trying to get in. The next day, Aura and Octos are nowhere to be seen, but the hurricane is approaching. Max thinks it's the smarter call to stay inside during a hurricane since, Emily however has other plans and heads out to find Aura. Look, I said she's the most logical, not the smartest. Max and Diana brave through the storm and find Emily on the pier. A pier being whipped around by Octos. They head on a boat to try to get to the pier only for Octos to attack, but Captain Ambrose saves them in time. Well, saves them, then leaves the three on the pier. In the midst of the storm, the Shadow Zone opens, sending Aura, Octos and the monsters into the portal. The kids almost get sucked in, but the storm suddenly stops. With the job done, Captain Ambrose stopped his storm.

The kids head home and are grounded by their parents for, you know, going out in a hurricane. As Max heads to his room however, he sees Captain Ambrose outside his window. He realizes that maybe there's something else the captain wants them to do, so this is far from over. 

Well my streak of Shadow Zone books I really like has come to an end. Though that being said, this one isn't TOO bad. There's plenty of action, lots of solid supernatural elements, and it's always moving, never taking too much of a break. We're always focused on the mystery. The use of the Shadow Zone concept is also handled here better than most, feeling like a reason that everything is happening and not just here because we can't find a more salient explanation. That's all good stuff that continues the streak of me liking these books. What I don't like is Max. 

Shadow Zone, at least from the books I've read, goes on the concept of character growth. That the protagonist starts by being an awful person to someone, like their stepfamily, their teacher, their cousin, that sort of stuff. It's through the experience that they learn that the person they judged isn't as bad as they thought and the protagonist becomes a better person for it. I don't feel that with Max at all. He treats Emily like crap for the most part, and we really don't get a moment any time after where he's more willing to respect her more. Same with his treatment of Aura. There's never a moment where he ever treats Aura as anything more than something he can film for his own benefit. He constantly treats the situation like it's more of a bother than something important, and I don't feel like he grows enough at the end to really earn any decent ending.

As for everyone else, they're fine. Diana though feels mostly existent but still works for being the one other sibling who actually cares about the situation. Like, Max sucks so bad, but Diana tries to see things Emily's way and also wants to fix this mess while Max, again, doesn't. Emily is also interesting. She's the only character who seems truly empathetic to Aura and Captain Ambrose's plight. She's the one who wants to fix this mess. And yes, that means stupidly going into a hurricane, but at least she's trying. More than I can say about Max.

While everything flows well, it's a little too breakneck fast for my liking. We never get much time with Aura to even have Max change his ways. She's constantly doing battle with Octos and the other sea monsters who barely have any time to be anything more than exist. Captain Ambrose is interesting as the sort of villain, sort of side of good. Although, when you think about it, WHY did he need the kids to get the drilling back underway? The storm did the job for it. He handled it all on his own. And that's what really hurts this book, our protagonists didn't matter at all to the story. Aside from Emily's empathy here, how did the kids factor at all into this situation? They didn't get the drilling back up, they weren't the ones who opened the Shadow Zone. I can't believe it, but our protagonists are ALL SUPERFLUOUS CLAYS. 

So yeah, this is our first clunky Shadow Zone. I mean, it had to happen eventually, right? There's a lot of great ideas within it, but it feels like nothing clicks like it could have with this concept. Nothing that links these two things together. Though I guess that works in a way, a bunch of strange things happening and a trio of kids being stuck in the middle, unable to do anything about it. So if that was the intent, then mission accomplished? Eh, still a better Ghost Beach. One SLIMY Summer gets a B-.